and other things I like to yell about

Elementary School~4th Grade

4th grade came and I got boobs and my period. I was also given a book by my father called Girl Talk. It contained all the secrets of becoming a woman. The most memorable part stated that a girl should be able to stand up straight with her hands on her hips and her fingers should touch. If your fingers did not touch then you needed to do some sit-ups, as shown on page 25. I have never and will never be able to do this. Therefore, I blame any body image insecurities on my father… and that book.

Also in 4th grade, we got to write letters to the President of the United States! Oh how excited I was! I thought I had some pretty great ideas to share. Unfortunately, my letter had to be re-written several times. My teacher, Mr. H, felt my thoughts and questions were “not appropriate for the president.”

“Rachel, you can’t ask President Bush why we can’t just bomb Saddam Hussein.”

“why not?”

“Because…we…just…don’t BOMB people!”

“oh.” Excuse me for not being up to date on my political correctness at 10 years old!

In the end, though, I think I could have written anything I wanted. It was obvious the president didn’t take our letters seriously. Each one of us received the same typed letter from him. Something about young people getting involved in their government…blah blah blah. I don’t really remember. I do however, remember the awesome picture he ‘personally’ sent of himself wearing a red sweater. Odd.

And just so you know. I googled “George Bush wearing a red sweater” just in case someone not in my 4th grade class got the same shot. It wasn’t on there. But now I’m fairly confident I’m on some sort of government attack list…so…there’s that…